Anti-violence forum focuses on movies, games

Friday

Mar 28, 2008 at 12:01 AMMar 28, 2008 at 10:59 PM

In the popular video game Grand Theft Auto III, players score points by paying for a prostitute, and they can score more points by “beating up” the woman to get their money back. Points also are racked up by shooting and killing police officers

Chris Green

In the popular video game Grand Theft Auto III, players score points by paying for a prostitute, and they can score more points by “beating up” the woman to get their money back. Points also are racked up by shooting and killing police officers.

Winnebago County Circuit Judge Rosemary Collins shared those details about the game at Thursday’s Violence Prevention Collaborative, the third in a series of seven public meetings aimed at identifying and preventing violence in homes and community.

About 50 people, a mix of politicians, members of the courts and community activists, attended the meeting at Patriots Gateway Center.

The entertainment media — particularly the motion picture industry and the makers of video games — were singled out in the discussions for their role in helping to obliterate the line between what’s considered the “social norm” and “violent behavior.”
“We have to open our eyes,” Collins said. “We have to speak up about it, and say that’s not acceptable.”

With the aid of a video called “Tough Guise” by lecturer and anti-violence educator Jackson Katz, the group learned men and women need a new definition of masculinity, not the tough-guy image portrayed by action heroes on the movie screen.
The group agreed that the perpetrators behind the majority of violent crimes are boys and men, who Katz said, are part of a “dominate invisible group” created by the mainstream media. For instance, he said, headlines that state “children are killing children” should actually read “boys are killing boys and girls.”

Winnebago County Asso­ciate Judge Fernando Engels­ma, who presides over juvenile cases, said identifying violent behavior and the initial steps of intervention should start with parents. He offered his support of Mayor Larry Morrissey’s crusade to eradicate truancy in Rockford schools.

“There’s a relationship between juvenile delinquency and juvenile violence,” he said.
The judge then told the story of a woman who admitted to him that her son spends 16 hours a day in association with gang members.

“What’s that all about?” he asked. “If a child is in a snake pit, you may not be able to get rid of all the snakes, but you can get the child out of the pit.”

In recent weeks the mayor has taken the School District to task for not issuing citations that would send children and their parents to court if the student is identified as truant.